Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Meters and Amps and Volts ... OH MY!!!

These RV mobile houses that we drive down the road ... do you EVER quit learning stuff about them?? I'm pretty sure I will never learn enough!

We staged at the old Sam's Club parking lot, 14 rigs in all, ready to head to the fairgrounds. Let me tell you, this Golden Spike Club is organized!! One small glitch, as we pulled out, Betsy St. John, who was driving my car, couldn't get it in gear. I KNOW I heard the transmission shift out of neutral, but apparently it didn't. I ran half way across the parking lot to fix it, then back to the rig and rushed out to join the line at the stop light.

Once at the fairgrounds, the parking crew was impressed with our organization and that we all came in together. We waited 30 minutes while the electric crew strung wires in our parking section, before being escorted to our spots. Another lovely asphalt year ... except we do seem to be inching towards the dirt from year to year.

Once parked, I contacted Jim Fulkerson, MobileRVMaintenance.com, to commence with the oil change, including fuel filters, a complete service along with the service of my generator. What a great guy!!!

$448 was the grand total and all I had to do was sit and watch. Dan Chance a few rigs down had his done ... pretty soon two more were lined up!! They were fast and efficient with not a drop of oil on the ground. These guys are on my go-to list from now on!!

My second problem was a GFI that wouldn't reset. I had several guys help check it out, but we couldn't seem to find any reset button anywhere that would fix the problem. Phil and Ann's RV Service were next to show up and discover that the plug was bad. I made a quick trip to Home Depot for a new one, which he promptly installed and I'm good to go!! It's an important plug ... it controls my computer and printer!!! In conversation, I learned he also installs gas connections for propane heaters. I'll meet up with him again in Quartzsite for that installation.

Dan, Patty and I went to dinner at Fisherman's ... halibut and chips and mahi tacos were just as good as I remember. The clam chowder was even better.

When we returned to the rigs, the guys were finally getting our wiring completed. Their timing couldn't be better, since my batteries were almost below the red line. I plugged in and was promptly shocked to see only 110 volts. I went outside and proceeded to complain to anyone that would listen. Kurt Simon, long time RV master and Club President asked if my battery charger was on ... yes ... my batteries are low. Little did I know, it was dumping all that power straight to the batteries, making such a large draw on the voltage that my Energy Management System was about to cut me off!!

Did you know you can lower the voltage going to the batteries for charging??? Raise your hand ... who knew THAT? Kurt came in and showed me how to lower the amps with the control panel, which upped my voltage to an acceptable 115. Thank you Kurt ..... I learn more new stuff every day!! This would have come in handy on my last 6 month trip!!! So I admit ... my rig was the culprit when it came to lowering the voltage and I apologize to anyone who was nice enough to listen to my complaining.

I will probably never live long enough to learn all the ins and outs of this rig, so I definitely want to thank all the guys I bug about this stuff ... and for their patience in showing/teaching me the ropes!!! You guys are AWESOME!!!!!

David and I send our 'hello's' to the Golden Spike attendees. Hope the rally goes well including the ice cream socials. Question: Are the Golden Spikes parked in the same area as a couple of years ago OR have you improved and parked near the ice cream social/grandstand area?

I will pass it along Lynn ... we are in the brown lot next to the new motor coaches for sale. Seems each year we get a little closer to the dirt side, but so far have always been on asphalt. Everything close to the grandstand is for FMCA officers and handicapped people.

I too am learning every thing I can about our little truck house. Marsha Weaver gave me the idea about writing every thing I learn, down. So now I have a little notebook when I need to refresh my memory. Hope all goes well with your ice cream social.

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About Me

I'm a Cowgirl, born and raised on a cattle ranch in California. I recently retired and purchased a 2012 Tiffin Phaeton RV, so I could travel around the U.S. with my two dogs, Cooper (a poodle), Jessie (a Jack Russell) and Jonathan (my parrot). I've been around the world a couple of times and not been exactly happy with my photographic images, so I took a few classes from the local Junior College. I'm happy to say I'm pleased with the results. Not every picture will make it to my blog, but one out of ten is far better than one out of five hundred. I hope you enjoy them too, along with my tales of misadventures!!